1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications systems and, in particular, to the migration of subscriber data between home location registers (HLRs) of a telecommunications system.
2. Description of Related Art
Reference is now made to FIG. 1 wherein there is shown a block diagram of a portion of a telecommunications network 10 implementing a prior art subscriber data migration scheme. The network 10 comprises a public land mobile network (PLMN) 12 (also ref erred to as mobile communications network or cellular communications network) interconnected 14 with a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 16. Operation of the network 10, and in particular its constituent networks 12 and 16, to provide telecommunications services to subscribers (not shown) is well known to those skilled in the art, and will not be described herein.
The public land mobile network 12 includes plural home location registers 18 which individually operate as a database for storing subscriber data. This subscriber data includes permanently maintained subscriber profile information such as: the subscriber number (SNB), the mobile subscriber number (MSNB), the electronic serial number (ESN) of the subscriber's mobile telephone, subscription service features (like call waiting, call transfer) and associated data, and authentication data. The subscriber data further includes temporarily maintained information like current subscriber location.
Instances arise where it becomes necessary to migrate subscriber data among and between two home location registers 18. For example, redundant back-up of subscriber data to another home location register may be implemented, a new replacement/additional home location register may be installed in the network, or load balancing may need to be implemented between existing home location registers. The prior art migration scheme is illustrated in FIG. 1 occurring between two home location registers 18 within the public land mobile network 12. In accordance with this prior art migration scheme, the subscriber data 20 at issue is first manually output 22 from a first home location register 18(1). This output may, for example, be made to hard copy. The output subscriber data 20 is then manually input 24 into the second home location register 18(2). Typically, the manual input is made from the output hard copy. This prior art scheme involves the expenditure of a tremendous amount of effort, and is further prone to error. Additionally, the migration scheme takes a long time to complete, and before completed the subscriber data at issue may become obsolete.
There is a need for a more accurate and efficient, and perhaps automated, scheme for migration of subscriber data among and between two home location registers.